Zairiah looks around to make sure there is food to cook, hoping this wasn't a tribe of cannibals that was having them for dinner in a completely different way, especially since they are all armed.
She keeps all of that out of her voice though, and responds to the question saying
Well, we have one paying job and one personal justice job right now. Our dear friend was recently murdered, and on our way to do our paying job, should we be able to find the man who ordered her killed, we will be happy to return the favor and thus rid the world of the lawless, despicable slime maggot who killed her and attempted to kill us as well. Our other mission is funded by the Mosque of Zann and is thus above reproach of course, but we did take it in part in hope that we could find this evil man and bring him to justice.
As Zairiah speaks, the ever suspicious Aggrammar keeps his arms folded over his chest, and a raised eyebrow at such offer of hospitality.
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The elder folds his arms and says, "It is when one hears such a story as that that one realizes the Gods do indeed exist. Fore, such an adventure to attain revenge is proof thereof."
He turns to the lead woman cooking and she says, "Husband, the camel have been smoking for 12 hours, the Loregiver would be honored to dine on our succulent camel."
And from the smoking sand, a fully spiced camel carcass is removed that smells utterly delicious.
Some of Aggrammar's suspicions do fade away as he smells the wonderfully cooked camel. His frown turns into a smile as he looks to the others, waiting for their input.
Zairiah goes along with all of it, desperately wanting to believe that all of this was goodness without shadings of evil and she attempts to put her suspicions aside. It is difficult though, and not entirely successful, considering what they had recently been through, but she goes through the motions of being a grateful and polite guest, smiling, trying to be welcoming, expressing pleasure for the fine way that they are being treated... all while staying on guard in the back of her mind in case of a trick.
Thank you, friends. Tell us, what do you all do that allows you to be so generous to travelers? Are you traders? Perhaps we could do some business before we set out again. How can we repay your kindness?
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"Indeed, even the scent of that camel, so succulent, is enough reason to give praise," says Fadilah, "that we might cross paths and thus be so moved by the delicious fragrance. As the poets say, 'when my journey began I fed upon stew, but when my journey ended I fed upon camel.'"
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"Please," Nura says, handing the elder a bagful of coin (200 dinars). "It is hardly enough to recompense your generosity, but..."
The elder says, "We do a bit of trading here and there mostly our camels and our sheep. Mostly to trade for tools and other supplies that desert and the mountains do not provide."
He looks at Nura and says, "Your generosity is vast but you are invited guests out our council fire and we cannot accept your gift. Please tell us more about your quest for vengeance."
Ah, well, I probably spoke too strongly about that. I know that seeking vengeance for its own sake can leach the love out of your heart and leave it filled with only hatred, and I do not seek such. However, it is a difficult thing to remember the wise words of the gods when your friend has been murdered.
Please sit down and I will tell you the story.
I am from Afyal, as was my dear friend Ayyan. I am not sure if you know of the trading houses there, which are usually family businesses. One woman is the ruler of the trading house, and all of her husbands are traders traveling for the company. My friend worked for Fatima, one of these great ladies.
One of Fatima's husbands came home from a trip boasting of a deal he had made and he presented to his wife a beautiful necklace of emeralds. She thanked him and congratulated him, but his expertise was not gems, and she could tell immediately that the gems were flawed. A man named Yodfah had cheated him badly.
In Afyal, being cheated is a very bad thing... if your house has been cheated, and you let it go, then you are telling the world that it is okay to cheat you, and that it is not safe to trade with you because you do not know the value of your own goods. This mistake of her husband could cost her everything if it became known and she was not seen to correct it.
So, she sent Ayyan to investigate the matter and look into this Yodfah, and I came with Ayyan, because I wanted to travel and she needed a companion, and also someday I want to be like Fatima, and have my own trading house, and this seemed like a good way to be noticed.
Ayyan discovered that Yodfah was pursuing illegal business, and she, with the help of this group around me, obtained evidence to this effect, which she presented to the legal authorities. We knew it was dangerous, and she promised to lie low, and I traveled with this group for a short while to avoid the danger, but when we returned we found that Ayyan had been killed, and the lawyer that Ayyan had been working with was complicit with Yodfah, and he and others of Yodfah's employ tried to take our lives as well.
Yodfah's illegal businesses have been shut down. Fatima's goals have been reached, but my friend is dead, and I have no way to avenge her, or to help her soul find justice. I am not in a position to address the people who tried to have us killed or to chase after the undead under the city, which they tried to feed us to. Those are problems too big for me, and I can only pray for justice. But we have heard that Yodfah himself ran to this desert, and if we come across him, perhaps we can put an end to the source of the evil, for Ayyan was killed at his word.
Aggrammar tastes the camel and listens to the story.
The man scratches his beard as he eats his camel and then looks at Zairiah and says, "Yodfah, he is a dastardly individual. He is the Yodfah of Muluk, the Gem merchant. The word on the sands is that he is in trouble with the Brother of the True Flame. Something to do with breaking his contract."
Do you know where Yodfah is, or barring that, perhaps we should seek out the Brother of the True Flame.
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The man says, "Well, Yodfah and his entourage passed near here a few weeks ago. He is probably seeking out the Brotherhood's stronghold in the Weeping Desert. It is said that the fortress moves with the desert sands. You need to leave our Furrowed Mountains and travel southwards into the Weeping desert."
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Your group enjoys the hospitality of the Hill Tribe and in the morning your group sets out with a little help to navigate the mountain pass to get into the next valley below. The trek takes a few hours but you finally get onto desert sands in the valley and you can also see the extremely high mountains that parallel the ones you have just left.
GM Rolls
You make your way in a north-easterly direction because according to the information you were given by the tribe and on your map, that is the quickest way to get into the Burning Lands and you can either take venture south towards the Weeping Desert or continue east towards Al-Anwahr near the Sea of Salt. The day goes by uneventfully and you make camp what you assume to be halfway point before the mountain pass to get you out of the Furrowed Mountains.
GM Rolls
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Seated near the campfire as evening wears on, Fadilah says, "I am truly delighted by the hospitality shown to us by those people. I may love the bustle of the cities, the arts and poetry, the criers at the bazaar, but the warmth and generosity of the simple herdsfolk and the richness of their pastoral lives has an undeniable charm."
"We should only be a day away from crossing out of the Furrowed Mountains, yes? Should we try to cross the desert or follow the sea?"
I agree about their hospitality. I was filled with so much fear in approaching them, worried that they would harm us, that they weren't who they said they were, that they were luring us in to cheat us or worse. And after they proved to be good and kind, in talking with them, I felt ashamed of my thoughts, and I realize that I have let Yodfah poison my mind, filling me with hatred, fear, and doubt. Surely the world is filled with just as much good as there is evil, but I have started to look for the evil rather than the good, and that is unworthy of the people we meet, and unworthy of the gods.
Firmly, she went on.
Either the gods will deliver Yodfah into our hands or they will not, but going out of our way to seek an end to him is unnecessary. I have been straying from the path, and I was wrong. There is no fate but the fate that we are given. Let us go forward and do the job that we have been paid to do, towards the "sea" of salt and Al Anwahr, and we will see what the gods have in store for us.
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After thanking the elder and the tribe for their hospitality, Aggrammar took to the road with his companions - "I am ok with proceedin' to Al Anwar, though there is something to be said about repaying debts" - Aggrammar grumbled with a shrug - "And this Yodfah is owned some payback fer sure, sooner or later"
Zairiah nods in agreement, but doesn't retract what she said about leaving it up to the gods. She just hoped they would see justice done for her friend.
You set out in the morning from the floor of the Furrowed Mountains to hopefully get into the Haunted Lands proper.
GM rolls
You spend the whole day travelling and by late afternoon you you turn into the valley told to you by the tribe that would mark the border that the cartographers would call where the Furrowed Mountains cease and the Haunted Lands start, it is known that once the mountains have been cleared that due south is the start of the Weeping Desert and due east is the Burning Lands, Genies Garden and further Al-Anwahr to come. When you decide to make camp you are actually in the Weeping desert which is bounded by
low limestone hills at the base of the Furrowed
Mountains. This region has a frightening reputation of
wandering ghosts, spirits, and rom which is well
deserved. While camping overnight in the sandy
waste, you hear the distant moaning and wailing
drifting over the desert from the ruins located in its
depths.
GM rolls
In the morning, you find a wadi heading eastwards in the direction you need to go and towards the Genie's Garden on the map. You travel along it for some time. Travel along the wadi has been much swifter
than crossing other regions of the wilderness, as
the firm, sun-baked clay of the riverbed supports
even the heavy weight of camels and supplies
without shifting. In the late morning just before you were thinking to stop for lunch, the wind is blowing unusually strong from the direction of the
sea, pushing before it a bank of gray clouds.
Those clouds might mean rain. We probably want to get out of the riverbed for this next stretch just in case it floods.
Mahara the mystic says, "Yes that would be a prudent idea."
You follow Zairiah's advice and you bring the caravan our of the wadi. Soon thereafter rain starts to fall in a blinding torrent,
drumming upon the hard surface of the riverbed and
forming tiny pools that quickly flow together into a
small stream. The sky darkens as thunder crackles
ominously overhead. You continue moving forward but the storm becomes too great and you stop the caravan.
Fadilah keeps her head-scarf held over her head in a vain attempt to keep some of the rain off as the group moves to higher ground.
"We need to make sure the animals don't spook," she says over the torrent. "But I know nothing about how to handle that."
Zairiah saw that the camels were getting antsy because of the storm, so she mounted up and rode among them, talking to them in a low voice and trying to calm their fears with bits of sugar.
The group is able to hunker down with the camels and keep them from freaking out too much. The storm passes in a few hours, and soon the
floodwaters sweeping down the wadi have decreased to
a trickle, making travel along the length of the ravine
safe once again. It is mid-afternoon and you continue moving eastwards along the wadi. After about an hour of travelling, you see a wide flight of marble stairs that the abrupt torrent must have uncovered ,
which rises to a thick stone portal recessed into the
wall of the ravine.
Wow, stairs. That seems interesting... and perhaps placed in our path for a reason. I say we investigate.
Zairiah will find a place out of the wadi for the camels before venturing inside (if there is an inside), just in case another storm comes along.
Then she goes up to investigate the portal, and see if she can get it open.
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"Quite so," says Fadilah, having done her best to squeeze the deluge of water out of her clothing. "Stone doors of that sort are often tombs, or lairs for genies, or dwellings of ghuls or suchlike. It seems that Fate has smiled upon us by revealing this one with the sudden storm!"
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At the summit of a muddy marble
staircase, two reddish marble doors stand deeply
recessed into the rocky ravine wall. The portals are
cracked with age and separated by a hairline gap . The marble's chiseled surface bears the
following inscription:
Be warned, O Faint of Heart:
I am Shaddad, Son of Ad,
Terror of the Genies,
He who never yielded in battle,
Defeated only by Time
the Great Destroyer of Men and Societies.
”Shaddad, son of Ad - I have never heard of this one methinks” - Aggrammar ponders, looking at his companions - ”Any ideas? But like Fadilah said, it does seem to be a hidden tomb or lair?” - he adds, keeping his guard up and watching their surroundings.
"Shaddad... hmm... this is odd, 'defeated only by time'? I thought that genies didn't die of old age."
Fadilah thinks on it a bit and remember:
we may be in these enlightened times-were quite arrogant when the
world was young. It was only their right, after all.
And in those long-ago days, mankind actually presumed to question the actions
of the genies! The four most powerful elemental mages from the Al-Badia tribes of
the High Desert gathered to forge a weapon against these "marauding" genies.
(Indeed, you are right to be appalled at the audacity of these humans, O wise
adventurers!) Binding together fire, wind, sea, and air, these wizards enchanted a
scimitar, Cyclone of the Four Quarters, with the power to harm genies from any
elemental province. The four entrusted the wicked blade to an unworthy sheikh
known as Shaddad and departed to a distant land.
Armed with this enchanted scimitar, Shaddad sought out the noble genies in the
lonely places of the desert: the djinn on the mountaintops, the dao in the dark caves, the
marids in the secluded oases, even the efreet in the heat of the anvils! Brandishing his
blade, in a voice foolishly devoid of fear, the human ruler ordered the mighty genies to
cease their. . .excursions against the Al-Badia. He even dared challenge them to single
combat if they refused! The noble genies were rightfully amused by this mortal's
impertinence. As their response, the djinn enveloped him in a whirlwind; the dao
enclosed him in a block of stone; the marids engulfed him in a waterspout; and the efreet
enfolded him grandly in a pillar of flame. But Cyclone of the Four Quarters protected
Shaddad from the genies' attacks. To their amazement, the Al-Badia champion stepped
through their obstacles utterly unharmed. (I, too, fail to comprehend such a thing.)
Shaddad's continued resistance only enflamed the genies further. The noble genies
drew their towering blades of steel and launched attack after attack at the human.
But, as the sheikh parried all their blows with Cyclone of the Four Quarters and
riposted with painful accuracy, their arrogance turned to fear, I am ashamed to say.
Surrendering to this "Terror", they promised the miserable human countless wishes
if only he would spare their lives. Shaddad accepted, demanding that the genies restrict
themselves and their kin to the uninhabited wilderness, away from the migration paths
of the Al-Badia. The genies too hastily agreed, and the sheikh returned to his
people...unharmed! He lived out his puny days in peace, until the Sunderer of
Societies, the Destroyer of Delights, came upon him, none too soon. Why my former
master felt compelled to include this story in his collection, I cannot fathom.... this story was told to you by of the first Djinn you came across.
Fadilah snaps her fingers and says, "Now I remember! Shaddad wasn't a genie, he was their nemesis! I was misreading the second line as if Shaddad were a terror among genies, when he was a terror to them."
"Let me see if I can remember the story... it had some poems in it but a lot of it was prosaic, as I recall."
"In the chronicles of the ancient days of Zakhara, when genie-kind were still hot from the fires of Creation, humans lived in fear of genies. The great genies were mighty and terrible and humans cowered before them. But among the scattered tribes of the Al-Badini, the nomads of the high desert, four sorcerers joined together to create a blade, the Cyclone of the Four Quarters, that could defeat even the power of the djinn."
"The work of these wizards was mysterious and inscrutable, and each contributed deep knowledge of one of the four cardinal elements. When they had completed the weapon, they gifted it to Shaddad, a warrior of the Al-Badini."
Fadilah thinks for a second and says, "The story goes on, it's rather fanciful, and tells of how Shaddad confronted genies in all the four corners of Zakhara, and defeated their nobles until they begged him for mercy. Shaddad demanded of them that they leave the migrations and trade routes and encampments of the Al-Badini, and live only on the margins and fringes, away from humanity. So terrified were the genies that they agreed, binding themselves with the wishes that they promised to Shaddad."
"A fanciful story, it's supposed to explain why genies live only in remote places and don't destroy human cities, but I never thought it was... literally true."
She looks excited and says, "If this is true, and this is Shaddad's tomb, then the Cyclone of Four Quarters may be buried here with him!"
Nura raises an eyebrow at the young woman's story. "I'm impressed. Let's go in and take a look, shall we?"
That would be sweet... and might protect us if that genie that we messed with recently comes to find us.
She tries to access the tomb.
Zairiah thoroughly checks for traps but the doors are already opened partially, she is able to push them inwards to reveal
a columned crypt, its floor covered with a thin layer of
mud and water the flash flood forced through the
cracked stone doors.
Beyond the retracting light due to it almost being dusk, the crypt looks to be about 100 feet deep and 100 feet wide and you can barely make out a statue in the back. Other than the sliver of light that due to it being dusk is quickly going away it is almost pitch dark.
That would be sweet... and might protect us if that genie that we messed with recently comes to find us.
"My thoughts exactly" - Aggrammar winked at Zairiah.
He then peered down the passageway - "I can see well enough in the dark - but ye have some light sources?"
"Does anyone have a lamp that I can carry? Otherwise I can summon a magical light."
Nura shakes her head. "I'm woefully underprepared for exploring caverns or tombs," she explains.
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Fadilah sends her gen off to fetch a light spell.
Very shortly thereafter the gen returns with its usual "I have the spell you requested, mistress," and Fadilah wastes no time in casting it on the tip of her staff.
"Here we go."
With Fadilah's light spell you move into the crypt further. The 20feet radius of light shows that on either side of the center there are what you count to be 12 tall stone biers, with one column in front and one behind.
"It is definitely a tomb of sorts" - Aggrammar comments to the others from the entrance - "I will need someone's keen eyes close ta me, I hear these things are many times trapped"